Author: Hambik Zargarian

Photo: AP

 

The United Nations has denied reports that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit North Korea, the BBC reports.

China’s state media had earlier quoted North Korean sources as saying Mr Ban was due to visit Pyongyang this week. South’s Korea’s Yonhap news agency ran similar reports earlier in the week.

A planned visit by Mr Ban to North Korea in May was abruptly cancelled.

The last visit by a UN chief to the reclusive nation was by Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993.

The UN said in a statement that Mr Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, would be in New York next week then Malta, before going to the COP21 climate summit in Paris.

He had no plans to go to North Korea but “has repeatedly said that he is willing to play any constructive role”, including travelling there, “in an effort to work for peace, stability and dialogue on the Korean Peninsula”, a spokesman said.

Earlier reports had said that he was due to visit for four days and would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Hong Kong businessman Joseph Lau renames gem ‘Blue Moon of Josephine’ after daughter, a day after spending $28.5m on rare 16.08-carat pink diamond

A Hong Kong billionaire spent a record $48.4m buying an 12.03-carat diamond dubbed “Blue Moon” for his seven-year-old daughter in an auction in Geneva, the reports.

Property tycoon Joseph Lau bought the rock at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday and immediately renamed it “Blue Moon of Josephine” after his daughter.

The sale comes the day after he spent $28.5m buying a rare 16.08-carat pink diamond – the largest of its kind to ever go under the hammer – from rival auction house Christie’s, which he rebaptised “Sweet Josephine”.

A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Lau confirmed the two purchases. “The first was the pink one, ‘Sweet Josephine’, and the second one was the ‘Blue Moon of Josephine’,” she said.

David Bennett, the head of Sotheby’s international jewellery division, said the “Blue Moon” sale broke several records and made the gemstone the most expensive diamond, regardless of colour, and the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction. It also fetched the highest-ever price per carat, he said.

The previous world record for a jewel sold at auction was held by the 24.78-carat “Graff Pink” diamond, which was sold by Sotheby’s for $46.2m in November 2010.

This is not the first time Lau has bought rare jewels for his daughter. In 2009, he reportedly spent $9.5m on another blue diamond, which he renamed the “Star of Josephine”.

The Syrian Army, with the support of armed militia fighters, has liberated 50 villages in the south-east of Aleppo province, a militia source said Tuesday, reports.

This week on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” the West family and Khloe Kardashian are still in Armenia for the tail end of their trip. Back in Los Angeles, the rest of the family is in turmoil over Caitlyn Jenner’s transition, the International Business Times reports.

Before leaving Armenia, Kanye West decides to give back to the people of his wife’s ancestral land. They were received warmly during their visit, so Kanye puts up an

Kim and Kanye clearly have a blast with the thousands of people that showed up. Unfortunately, Khloe isn’t too happy that she wasn’t invited to the event. Kim says that she texted her sister but Khloe didn’t reply.

In the end, Khloe just decides to let the whole incident pass because she wants to avoid ruining the rest of the trip. They still have a few days left on their vacation because Kim and Kanye have decided to bring their daughter North West to Jerusalem to be baptized.

They head out for the baptism held at the which is situated at the ancient Armenian quarter of Jerusalem. Kim is ecstatic to have her dream come true and to be able to honor her Armenian father.

A gunman killed a reporter and videographer for a CBS affiliate in Virginia in a shooting that was broadcast live Wednesday morning.

Alison Parker and Adam Ward, a reporter and cameraman for CBS Roanoke affiliate WDBJ-TV, died in the shooting, Parker’s mother confirmed to CBS News.

that deputies from Franklin County and Bedford County were on the scene.

The shooting happened at Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta, Virginia.

The death toll in the collapse of Russian Airborne Troops barracks in the Russian City of Omsk has reached 12 people, another 19 are in hospital, the Defense Ministry’s press service told RIA Novosti.

Rescuers continue searching for 11 soldiers on the site, the press service reported.

“Eleven soldiers are still missing… The debris handling see rescue officers, the military garrison of Omsk, special engineering equipment and a group of dog handlers,” — added spokesman.

Goalkeeper of the Armenian national team Roman Berezovsky has rejected the reports about his intention to retire as footballer, Sport Express reports.

The 40-year-old will start working with the coaching staff of Dinamo Moscow this summer, but will continue playing for the national team.

Earlier reports in Armenian media suggested Berezovsky was going to quit his career.

“I have not made any final statement,” the goalkeeper said.

“No decision has been made. I may still play a few matches for the Armenian national team, if I’m in good form,” he said.

 

Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic Lubomír Zaorálek visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

Accompanied by Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute Hayk Demoyan, the Czech Foreign Minister toured the museum and planted a fir tree in the Memory Alley.

“Pleased to plant a Czech tree at the Memorial to the victims of Armenian Genocide in Yerevan today,” Lubomír Zaorálek said in a Twitter post.

Pleased to plant a Czech tree at the Memorial to the victims of Armenian Genocide in Yerevan today.

— Lubomír Zaorálek (@ZaoralekL)

The international auction house Sotheby’s withdrew from auction on Tuesday a painting by Ivan Aivazovsky that Russia’s Interior Ministry said last week had been stolen in 1997 from a private collection in Moscow, Reuters reports.

The auction house said “Evening in Cairo” by Russian artist of Armenian descent Ivan Aivazovsky, had been withdrawn from sale at the request of the consignor, or seller.

Russia’s Interior Ministry had asked that British police block the auction.

Sotheby’s said last week it had found no record of the painting in the databases of stolen art and would proceed with the sale on June 2, with the agreement of the consignor and the family which said it had been stolen.

In an emailed statement on Tuesday, Sotheby’s said: “Ivan Aivazovsky’s Evening in Cairo, Lot 23, in Sotheby’s 2 June 2015 Sale of Russian Pictures has been withdrawn at the request of the consignor.”

It said there was “no further information available”.

Russia’s Interior Ministry declined immediate comment, saying it would make its position clear later on Tuesday.

The Interior Ministry did not name the complainant but Sotheby’s earlier identified them as the Nosenko family, which Russian media said had purchased the painting in the 1940s.

The 1870 painting had been listed as a lot on the website of Sotheby’s, with an estimated value of 1.5-2 million pounds ($2-$3 million), as part of a collection of Russian pictures due to be sold in London on June 2.

The Sotheby’s website had listed the work’s provenance as being in the collection of N.I. Dedov.

Sotheby’s kept the identity of the seller confidential but said that it had acquired the painting in good faith in 2000.

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic has a new parliament. Thirty-three deputies will be represented at the National Assembly, of which 22 have been elected through party lists, the other 11 – through majoritarian system.

The turnout at the Sunday elections made 70%. According to preliminary data, Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan’s “Azat Hayrenik” (Free Motherland) Party is leading the vote.

Observers at the elections yesterday expressed their satisfaction with the voting process. Speaking of the position of the European Union and other international organizations, MEP Marc Engel said: “The fact that I’m here today at least shows that I recognize the elections. I consider that the people of Nagorno Karabakh prefer democracy without recognition to recognition without democracy.”

Director of the European Friends of Armenia Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa said “democracy is developing in the whole world, and the elections in Karabakh are a vivid example of it.”

The elections were followed by more than 100 observers from 25 countries.